Last week, the Electronic Recycling Association donated two computers and three laptops to the Rainmaker Enterprise in Toronto. These items will be used for field project staff in South Sudan.
At Rainmaker Enterprise, they provide solar-powered water supply and management systems that create jobs and support livelihoods, enable year-round local food production, improve community health, empower women and youth, preserve and regenerate ecosystems, and sustain peace. Their programs are co-designed and co-managed with hard-to-reach communities that lead the way to a healthy, peaceful and regenerative future.
The Rainmaker Enterprise’s projects take on a gender focus by considering the different roles, rights, and responsibilities that women and men have when it comes to access to and use of water resources; and also, importantly how this impacts the relationship between men and women. In this respect, their focus on gender goes beyond looking at the relation between men and women and deeply explores the different ways that social development and improved quality of life are impacted by these binary roles.
Their founder, James Thuch Madhier, is a former South Sudanese refugee-turned-entrepreneur who is committed to addressing the challenges that forced him to flee his home country. James’ journey has been defined by self-reliance and creating options where none existed. One opportunity James never had was the option to stay in South Sudan. “I never wanted to leave my country,” he shared in an interview on the Canadian CTV show ‘Your Morning.’ Growing up, James watched humanitarian aid response to the crisis of hunger, yet saw few attempts to deal with the complex root issues of hunger that have persisted. Today, James is committed to finding sustainable, scalable and community-driven solutions to the deep roots of poverty and insecurity. James has established himself on the world stage by engaging boldly with high-level policymakers, from the United Nations to the European Commission, and is a sought-after advisor on sustainable development issues, currently sitting on the steering committee of the Humanitarian Grand Challenge. Check out their website by clicking here to learn more.
Sustainability is a key challenge around the application of technology – how do you use such technologies in the most appropriate way? The Rainmaker Enterprise is committed to how. ERA is also committed to sustainability through its focus on reuse before recycling. Our team works with community charities to provide repurposed computers and electronics to those in need. Contribute to our mission of reducing e-waste by recycling your unwanted electronic devices with the ERA.